


The Struggles Of Being An Ex-Horde Soldier

by Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora (She-Ra) is a Dork, Adora has no idea what she's doing, Cooking, Culture Shock, Gen, Power of Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27457417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire/pseuds/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire
Summary: After a childhood being raised in the Horde Adora knew that she wasn't exactly the most knowledgeable about life experiences.But fortunately she had friends ready to help her when she didn't know what to do.OrAdora has no idea what she's doing and her friends are here to help.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 33





	1. Adora Tries Cooking

Adora knew that she was missing some important life experiences.

It was only natural, the Horde was designed to regiment and control the lives of its soldiers. No one was given more information or freedom than necessary.

But the rebellion was completely different.

Hobbies, relationships and friendships were actually encouraged here, and the environment was a _lot_ more welcoming.

But that didn’t mean Adora knew how everything worked.

Today’s incident would prove to be the perfect example.

* * *

(A)

Adora was hungry.

Now this wasn’t uncommon. Back in the Horde she was often hungry after a long training session, sometime Catra would sneak them some food from the kitchens, but more often than not she just endured it until the designated mealtimes.

But the rebellion different, whenever she saw Bow or Glimmer be hungry they just popped off to the kitchens to make something before returning.

It was a novel idea, to just cook whenever you felt hungry.

And in the spirt of trying new things, Adora had decided to both locate the kitchens and then cook herself a meal. Maybe the rebellion had Meal Number: #2467, that was her _favourite_ meal and Adora would always be excited when it was on the menu.

But of course Adora had only been apart of the rebellion for two weeks and had spent less than half that time in Brightmoon itself, so she had no idea where the kitchens might be.

And not wanting to bother her newfound friends, (especially because it was fairly late at night), Adora decided to wander the castle with her sword on her back and search for the kitchens.

She decided to use a _highly efficient_ search pattern to aid her in the search, although the effectiveness of said search pattern was inconclusive as it took her a full two hours and more than two dozen dirty looks from security guards before she succeeded in locating the kitchen.

The kitchen itself was deserted, which made sense as it was eleven at night, but also perfect for Adora as any failures of cooking would only be known by her. (In theory)

However, it also meant that there was no one there to tell her what all the ingredients were and how to work all the machines and gizmos.

“Right. Just you and me kitchen.” Adora said aloud to said empty and quite kitchen. “I will cook my food and be on my way, there will be no trouble, Got it?”

Satisfied that her threat had gotten through to the inanimate objects that made up the kitchen, Adora decided that it would be best to think about what exactly to cook first before she messed with anything.

Then it came to her, Meal Number: #2467 if she could make that, then she could have her favourite food whenever she wanted.

Meal Number: #2467 consisted of roughly three items; one flat piece of meat in-between two pieces of bread, one set of cut potatoes and a brown drink that was just _heavenly_ to drink in the mornings.

With the idea of what to cook firmly stuck in her mind, Adora decided to enter the food storage room. Inside there was a bunch of shelves all covered in food.

It was a lot of cans and packets of various food stuffs. But the question was which one of them contained the food she needed.

Seeing nothing for it, Adora went over and opened the nearest container to see what was inside. And it turned out that it was a pile of a white powder type substance.

Gingerly, she stuck a finger into it and took it out and hesitatingly tasted it on her finger. But there wasn’t much of a taste to speak of.

“Flou-ar” Adora read the name that was on the container. “Sounds weird.”

Frowning, she moved over and searched a few other containers, occasionally taste testing a few of the substances but there was nothing crazy until she tasted something from the jar labelled ‘sugar.’

It looked similar to the flour but felt very different.

Much like with the others, she brought it to her mouth and tasted. Her eyes widened, that felt good, it felt really _good._ In fact, it brought back memories of Shadow Weaver giving her a food that she called ‘pancakes’ that were covered in a substance that looked very similar to this ‘sugar’ thing.

Shadow Weaver would always give her ‘pancakes’ on Adora’s birthday as according to her, pancakes were incredibly rare commodities. (It didn’t escape Adora’s notice that Catra never got any on her birthday.)

Maybe the rebellion had one or two lying around.

But one thing at a time, after trying sugar Adora found what she was looking for the container labelled ‘bread.’

After clapping her hands together, Adora took out some only to be disappointed that it was one big piece.

But progress was progress and bread was bread.

So she put the bread out onto the counter and returned to the food storage.

One down, two to go.

But unfortunately searching and tasting her way through the rest of the storage, there proved to be no actual meat for her to use. But what there _was_ another door.

She opened it and was immediately beset with a burst of freezing cold air.

“This better be where the meat is kept.” She muttered as she entered the room and looked around.

Much like the other storage, everything was labelled.

But unfortunately it might as well have been gibberish to Adora. Back in the Horde meat was meat regardless of the differences in texture.

“Beef, chicken, steak, fish, ice cream.” Adora read the names of some of the containers. Where they all types of meat? She hadn’t though fish was, but then again, she _was_ new to this thing.

But still, she needed to pick a type of meat to use in her food.

After some deliberation, Adora chose to open the container labelled ‘Ice cream’ and found a bunch of smaller boxes, each with their own label on them.

Why did everything have to be so complicated?

Adora decided to just grab the first box she saw and closed the container. Hopefully ‘Neapolitan’ tasted good. But to be safe she also decided to get some more meat from the container labelled ‘steak’ just to be safe.

Although the steak meat wasn’t in its own mini container like the ice cream and as such, she had to hold it gingerly by its end.

Adora left the cold storage and returned to the kitchen proper, setting the food on the counter.

Right, she had bread and two different types of meat.

Now all she needed was the drink, but unfortunately, she had no idea where exactly they’d keep their liquids and resolved to solve that problem next time. For now, cooking food would be enough.

Now the question was, how exactly to cook the food?

Her best bet was most likely to use one of these machines with their dials and buttons. It couldn’t be too hard to use them, people cooked things all the time.

Giving a thoughtful hum, Adora went to the nearest machine labelled ‘oven’ and started to fiddle with the dials. After a few moments the inside of the oven started to glow a nice orange colour. Adora assumed that it meant that it was working.

But of course a lifetime of training to become a soldier had left her with the mentality that one should never put all their eggs into on basket. As such, Adora went decided to open a smaller boxlike machine that had a window.

It looked alright, but there were no dials on this one.

Frowning, Adora took the bread out of it’s packet and set it on the counter. Obviously, it would need to be cut, but she had no idea where they would keep the knives.

Normally Adora would just go looking for some, but at this point it was almost midnight and dear lord Adora was hungry. So Adora simply took her sword off her back and held it over the bread. After all, a knife was just a smaller sword and a sword was just a bigger knife.

Easy, easy… her sword swung down and cut the bread cleanly in half.

…And the counter too.

“No, no, no.” Adora muttered as her eyes went wide. “Maybe it’s not too bad.” She said before pulling the sword out of the counter, and it was rather noticeable. Damn it.

“Don’t panic. Do not panic. It’s just a counter, they can fix it.” She reasoned, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

Two more cuts and two more damaged counters later, she then moved the four pieces of bread to a different counter and looked at her two pieces of meat.

Adora opened the container labelled ‘Neapolitan’ which was from the ice cream meat and was confused with what she saw. It looked like no form of meat she’d ever seen in the Fright Zone and touching it proved that it didn’t feel like or was as solid traditional meat. Maybe it was a rebellion thing?

Regardless, if it was in the cold storage then it was a form of meat, in fact odds are it probably became more solid with heat.

Adora smiled, confident in her assumptions. She then placed the steak between two pieces of bread and then used her hand to let out some of the ice cream between the other two pieces of bread.

And for a final touch, she took some of the ‘sugar’ from the storage room and poured a bunch of it over both of the meals.

After all, if it tasted good on the pancakes, it should taste good on Meal: #2467.

Adora then opened the oven and felt the warm air fly over her. But was this warm enough? She thought about it for a few moments before deciding that yes, this was fine. But just to be sure…

Adora turned the dial up to the maximum settings and grabbed the steak one and put it inside and closed it.

She then put the ice cream into the microwave, and pressed a few buttons, causing it to power up.

Adora stood up with a triumphant smile.

She had done it.

She had managed to successfully cook her favourite meal.

Adora took a single step backwards only to slip and fall on some water.

“Ow…” She rubbed the back of her head and Adora’s eyes widened as she saw water leaking out from where her sword had cut through the counter at. She must have hit a pipe.

Carefully she got up and inspected the damage, but unfortunately Adora was no engineer and all she could tell was that A: the pipes where damaged. And B: they were leaking water at an alarming rate.

Her knowledge of indoor plumbing exhausted, Adora search the kitchen for some for of towel she could use to seal the leak with. Said search resulted in her finding a small drawer with two small towels inside it next to the sink.

Adora then rushed over to the damaged pipe and wrapped the two small towels around it putting them in a tight knot. The water stopped leaking and Adora smiled, crisis adverted. The cleaners would mop up the excess water in the morning… well later today technically as it was now five minutes past midnight.

Time to check up on the food.

Adora chose the oven first and opened it. She then frowned at the food inside which looked very burnt. But that’s how food was supposed to be right? Heated up?

Adora picked up the food straight out of the oven and dropped it mere seconds later due to the heat. And rather unfortunately it was dropped right into the water on the floor.

“Dammit!” Adora yelled, gripping her hand as she did so. She’d have to deal with the burns on her hand now.

Her hopes then went up as there was a pleasant _ding!_ From the microwave.

Said hopes were immediately dashed when the microwave exploded.

* * *

(G)

“BZZZZ!”

“BZZZZ!”

Nope. Glimmer was not answering that thank you very much. She was sound asleep and very comfy. Whoever was calling would just have to accept that.

“BZZZZ!”

“BZZZZ!”

Glimmer slowly opened her eyes and glared at the offending communicator before accepting her fate and hitting the answer button.

“Yes?” She asked tiredly.

“Sorry to wake you ma’am but there’s been an incident in the kitchens.” The guard on the other end reported.

“But why are you calling _me_ and not my mom?” Glimmer asked. “And why at half past twelve at night? Couldn’t it wait till morning?”

“It involves the defector from the Horde.”

Suddenly Glimmer felt a lot more awake. “Adora?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

Glimmer shut off the communicator and teleported to her drawers, quickly throwing on an outfit.

She hoped that it wasn’t anything bad. In all honesty Glimmer had expected that there would be an incident involving Adora at some point. It was only natural, Adora was a former Horde soldier after all. Odds are integration with the rebellion wasn’t going to be an entirely smooth process.

Honestly Glimmer was surprised it had taken a full two weeks before there was an incident.

Now fully dressed, Glimmer teleported down to the kitchens and made several observations.

Firstly, no one was hurt or killed. That was good, it meant that she wasn’t responding to a violent incident.

Secondly, the kitchen was on _fire._ This was most likely the reason she had been called. Some guards could also be seen trying to activate the fire suppression system.

Thirdly, the kitchen was also flooding. Two or three guards were trying to secure the burst pipe and stop it, but without much success.

Fourthly, Adora was standing awkwardly off to the side, her face as red as a tomato and being glared at by a guard that was standing next to her.

And finally, the captain of the guard was waiting for Glimmer patiently at the doors.

“Your highness.” The captain nodded respectfully. “We apprehended this one-” He pointed sharply at Adora. “Trying to sabotage our kitchens and trying to destroy our food supplies.”

 _“That is not true!”_ Adora shouted over to them. _“This was all just an accident!”_

“What exactly happened?” Glimmer asked the captain.

“About fifteen minutes ago an explosion was heard coming from this area. A few of my men where nearby and we investigated, finding the defector here, seemingly fanning the flames of the fire, at which point we contacted you.”

Glimmer sighed and rubbed her face. It was far too late at night/early in the morning to deal with this.

“Try and fix the kitchen, I’ll deal with Adora.” Glimmer said.

“Very good ma’am.”

The captain went away to deal with the state of the kitchen and Adora stepped forward. Glimmer put her hand on Adora’s shoulder and within a second, they were back in Glimmer’s room.

“So what happened?” Glimmer crossed her arms.

“Well… uh.” Adora scratched the back of her head. “I sorta tried my hand at cooking.”

“But _how_ did that lead to the kitchen being on fire and flooding at the same time?” Glimmer asked with genuine curiosity, because how exactly does that happen?

“Well, I tried to cut some bread, I couldn’t find a knife so I just decided to use my sword.” Adora explained sheepishly. “I _may_ have put a little too much force into it.”

Glimmer nodded. “Right, and the fire?”

“It happened after the microwave exploded.”

“But why exactly did the microwave explode?”

“I don’t know!” Adora threw her arms into the air. “I just pressed a bunch of buttons and it went boom!”

“Have you ever cooked before?” Glimmer asked.

“No, back in the Horde we were just given the meals at the cafeteria. Learning skills outside of being a soldier was discouraged.” Adora explained.

So that was Adora’s first ever attempt at cooking? It made sense, only someone who had no idea what they were doing would be able to cause that much damage. But it did beg one important question…

“If this was your first time cooking something, why didn’t you get me or Bow? We could have helped you and probably limited the damage.”

Adora looked away, embarrassment schooling her features. “Well, it was late at night and I didn’t want to bother you guys, I also figured it would be easy cause everyone else cooks all the time.”

“Don’t be silly Adora, it wouldn’t have been a bother, I would have been glad to come and help you.” Glimmer said with a genuine smile. “But out of curiosity, what exactly were you trying to make?”

“Meal number: #2467.” Adora said much to Glimmer’s confusion, said confusion must have shown on her face because Adora then followed up with an explanation. “It’s a piece of meat in between two pieces of bread and some potato slices.”

Glimmer’s confusion lasted for a second or two before she realised what Adora was describing. “Ohhh, you mean a burger and some fries.”

“Burg-ar? Fries?”

“That’s what we call that meal number thing here.” Glimmer explained. “Sometimes it’s easy to forget there’s a lot you don’t know outside the Horde.”

“Sorry.” Adora apologised quietly.

“Don’t be, it’s the Horde’s fault that you don’t know these things, not yours.” Glimmer comforted her. “Tell you what, tomorrow after they’ve fixed up the kitchen, you, me and Bow could go down and teach you how to cook properly. How does that sound?”

Adora’s face brightened. “That sounds great! As long as it doesn’t interfere with any plans you guys had…”

“Don’t worry it doesn’t.” Glimmer assured her. “Do you want to chill here for tonight? It’s very late after all.”

Adora nodded an affirmative and Glimmer teleported them both up to the bed.

“Night Adora.”

“Good night Glimmer.”

* * *

(A)

The next day, in the afternoon, Adora met Glimmer and Bow at the kitchens which had just been repaired.

“Right, I’ve spoken with the head chef, he’s agreed to let us use a small part of the kitchens to teach Adora how to cook.” Glimmer announced.

Adora gave a nervous smile. Hopefully her second attempt at cooking would turn out better than the last.

The best friend squad entered the kitchen and went directly to the area that was set aside for them, one with a bunch of the cooking machines and doo dats.

“Right, then Adora welcoming to cooking 101.” Bow said, clapping his hands together. “And rest assured you are in good hands, me and Glimmer are pretty good cooks if I do say so myself.”

Adora awkwardly grinned and gave a thumbs up.

“And trust me, this will be better than any food you’ve had at the Horde, I actually tried some you know, it was left behind by retreating patrol. It tasted awful and plastic-y.” Glimmer shared her story, shuttering at the memory.

“Now the first step takes place before you even _touch_ the food.” Bow said. “Aprons and hair nets!”

Adora could only look at him blankly as he pulled said items out of seemingly nowhere and handed a set each to Adora and Glimmer before putting his own on.

Adora eyed the clothing warily before putting them on, was this what cooks back in the Horde wore when they cooked?

“The next step it to choose what exactly we’re going to cook.” Glimmer said. “Now I’m assuming you still want to make burgers and fries?”

Adora nodded. “Yep, good ol’ Meal number: #2467.”

“Did the Horde really have that many meal variations?” Bow asked curiously.

“Sorta, you see most meals are just put out once and then discontinued. Only some meals make their way into regular rotation.” Adora explained before chuckling. Catra would constantly complain about the selection of meals available.

“Well weird choices by the Horde aside, lets go to the storage and help you pick out some ingredients.” Bow indicated the next task.

They moved into storage and Glimmer gestured broadly. “Now we want you to get the ingredients you got from here last time and we will correct you if necessary.”

“Right.” Adora nodded more confidently than she felt. She went directly towards where they kept the bread and pulled out the same type of loaf that she did last time. She then showed it to her friends, but the looks on their face told Adora that this was not the correct one to use.

“That’s the one you used?” Bow asked, causing Adora to hesitatingly nod. “Well, it’s not the worst one to use. But I think you’ll find…” Bow went over to the bread container and fished out a different more rounded type of bread. “…That this is the better choice for burgers. We call them burger baps.”

“Burger baps.” Adora repeated.

“Yes, now what did you use for the fries?” Glimmer asked.

“I didn’t get that far.” Adora admitted.

“That’s alright, we’ll get some premade fries from cold storage. Speaking of, let’s go there now and get the rest of the ingredients.” Once Glimmer finished speaking, they went into the cold storage. “Now same deal, just get what you got last time.”

Adora nodded and went over and opened the steak container and extracted said food item from it. A quick glance at her friends showed that their expressions were more positive than last time, so Adora then went over to the ice cream container and lifted the same type she got last time.

But Adora was disheartened to see their expressions somewhere between bursting out with laughter and despair.

“Adora… why did you use ice cream?” Bow asked, traces of laughter in his tone.

“Well it was in here, so I assumed it was some for of meat that became more solid with the heat.” Adora explained uncomfortably.

“A- Adora.” Glimmer said, desperately trying not to laugh form the sound of it. “Ice cream isn’t met, it’s a dessert.”

Adora frowned and looked down at the ice cream. “But I don’t see any sand.”

“No not that type of desert, it’s a _dessert_.” Bow emphasised, but that didn’t tell Adora anything. This seemed to dawn on Bow and his expression became horrified. “You mean to tell me that the Horde doesn’t have any desserts?”

Adora didn’t really know what he was talking about, so she just smiled and nodded.

Bow’s expression continued to be horrified while Glimmer shook her head. “We can introduce Adora to the wonderful world of desserts later, for now lets just focus on cooking.”

Adora returned the steak and ice cream to their respective containers while Glimmer fished out some frozen disks of meet from the ‘beef’ container.

“Now these are beef patties, what we use in burgers.” Glimmer explained. “For now we’ll just cook some burgers, one for each of us. No need for fries this time.”

They all returned to the counter and Bow set up the equipment they’d need.

“Now this is a frying pan, what we use to cook burgers with. As you can see, I’ve put some cooking oil on it which will help with the cooking process.” Bow explained. “Now what you’ll want to do is take the meat from it’s packaging and into the frying pan. It’s big enough for three of them.”

“Right.” Adora nodded before picking them up carefully and putting three patties into the frying pan. “Like this?”

“Exactly!” Bow said. “Now we will put it on the oven top and active the gas.” He did so and Adora heard a low hissing noise. “Then we active the fire.” He twisted a knob and a blue flame appeared under the frying pan.

“It that a fire?” Adora questioned.

“Yep, now hold this, it’s called a spatula.” Glimmer said, handing Adora said piece of cutlery.

Then Bow let go of the frying pan and grabbed Adora’s hand, forcing it to grip the frying pan.

“What are you doing!?” Adora yelled as she panicked.

“Just hold onto the frying pan, your doing great, now flip the patties.” Bow instructed.

“What!?”

“Flip them or they’ll be burnt!”

Adora manically flipped over one of the patties, nearly throwing it out of the frying pan. Fortunately her own reflex’s to put it back in. She then repeated the process with the other two.

“Good.” Bow praised. “Now I’ll just take the patties out of the frying pan and put them on this tray. Notice how they’re no longer pink, but instead a nice brown colour?”

Adora nodded. “Does that mean they’ve been cooked?”

“Nearly, we just have to put tinfoil over the tray and then put it in the oven for a bit. How long for really depends on how cooked you want your meat, but generally 20-25 minutes is a good bet.” Bow said as he put some of the aforementioned tinfoil over the tray and then put it in the oven.

“So we just wait?” Adora asked.

“Yep.” Glimmer said, popping the ‘p’ as she did so. “Now how are you feeling about this whole thing?”

In all honesty Adora felt very much embarrassed about how easy it looked and how badly she messed up. It also made her feel a bit stupid as well, hearing all of the terms she didn’t understand. But she didn’t communicate any of this to Bow and Glimmer, that would be a sign of weakness, instead she went with her go to response from when she was still with the Horde.

“I’m fine.”

“Good, good.” Glimmer nodded absently.

After that they all made small talk for the next twenty or so minutes, talking about how their individual days were going, talking about the war and just generally chatting. Once the time was up, Bow put on an oversized glove of some kind and took the burgers out of the oven.

“Good news, they are done.” He announced. Bow then put the burgers on plates and in between the buns.

“Now usually we’d put some lettuce or maybe cheese on them. But just for today, we’ll take it slow and have them plain.” Glimmer said as she grabbed her burger.

Adora grabbed her one at the same time and looked at it critically.

The burger looked pretty much the same as Meal number: #2467. It even seemed to look healthier and more eatable.

But of course, there was only one way to be sure…

Adora took a big bite of the burger.

It taste good, even better than Meal number: #2467.

She took a second bite, then another, and another, then a few seconds later the burger was eaten.

“I see _someone_ is enjoying their food.” Glimmer teased.

“I like it, it tastes _so good_.” Adora said wide eyed.

“Better than anything by the Horde huh?” Bow winked, nudging Adora’s side gently.

Adora gave a genuine smile. “Definitely better. Can we have more?”

“More burgers?” Bow asked for clarity to which Adora nodded affirmative. “Well, I can cook some up for dinner later.”

“That would be fantastic.” Adora said with a big genuine smile. “And guys, thank you for the help.”

“Anytime, but just one more thing Adora.” Bow said.

“Oh?”

“The next time you need help, please do not hesitate to ask.” Glimmer requested with a smile.

“Of course, I promise to ask for help.” Adora said.

Having friends is definitely better than staying with the Horde.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome everyone to my new fic.
> 
> As someone who is new to She Ra, (Still haven't finished watching season 2), I'm really warming up to the show and just love Adora as a character.
> 
> So as I am new, I'd like to apologise for any inconsistencies or errors on my part.
> 
> Still, this fic will be an exploration of Adora's earlier times with the rebellion as she experiences things she never would have in the Horde, for example cooking.
> 
> Because it will be more one shot-y in nature, feel free to suggest any ideas you have.
> 
> The next chapter will be out next week, and till then thanks for reading and I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	2. Sick Days

(A)

Sometimes Adora just felt out of place in the rebellion.

For example, right now she was currently She Ra in a refugee camp helping distribute food to refugees.

It was something she’d never imagined that she’d be doing when she was with the Horde. Helping the needy was good of course, but Adora was at a loss on how to actually interact with them.

So she resolved to just shake hands and nod, trying to avoid uncomfortable small talk that would lead to she was once a part of the same Horde that had driven them from their homes and ruined their lives.

Smile and nod, give the refugee food.

Smile and nod, give the refugee food.

Then the next refugee was an old woman that looked very sickly.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” She muttered, gripping Adora’s hand tightly and shaking it.

“Your, ugh welcome.” Adora replied uncomfortably, looking down at the little old lady rather awkwardly from She Ra’s massive height.

And as the little old lady shuffled away, Adora breathed a sigh of relief that her shift was over. She walked over to the tent that the rebellion set up and transformed back into herself, taking a seat on one of the fold up chairs.

“Great, Adora’s back.” Glimmer said as she wrote something down a notepad. “Mermista, you’re up next.”

“Whatever.” Was all the water princess said before exiting the tent, leaving Adora alone with Glimmer.

“Are you hanging in there Adora?” Glimmer asked, most likely trying to make conversation.

“Barely.” Adora groaned. “I have no idea what to say out there, I was literally apart of the same group that burned their homes and pillaged their crops. What am I supposed to talk to them about?”

“Well you aren’t part of the Horde now, you’re out there trying to make amends.” Glimmer comforted her. “Besides you don’t have to talk with them, just smile and nod.”

“I know, I know.” Adora nodded.

“Well just rest up, your next shift starts in half an hour and a few hours after that the refugees will be well fed and we will be back in Brightmoon.” Glimmer said.

Adora just closed her eyes and sighed, just a few more hours and this would all be over.

* * *

(A)

Roughly a week after shaking hands and giving food to the refugees, Adora woke up in her bed only to find that her head was absolutely pounding.

Good lord it was sore and her eyes felt like they could barely open.

But not one to give up, Adora opened her eyes through sheer force of will. With her eyes now open Adora tried to force herself upwards but had to stop due to a rush of nausea that threatened to overwhelm her brain box.

What was happening to her?

Adora received her answer when she felt the need to empty the contents of her stomach and forced herself to her bathroom to do said act.

Her stomach now lacking any substance to throw up with, Adora collapsed herself against the bathroom wall.

She was officially sick.

Interestingly enough Adora had only ever been sick once before. She’d been eleven at the time and had spent far too long in the cold resulting in a mild case of hyperthermia. She’d been kept in quarantine for a week to ensure that it was just hyperthermia and it had proved to be one of the most boring weeks of her life.

This felt much worse than it did then.

Of course Adora had no idea what the rebellion’s policy on sickness was, but she could guess that it would keep her out of the action for a while which simply wouldn’t fly. Odds are it would be similar to the Horde’s policy where you were kept in isolated quarantine for a month.

Adora couldn’t let that happen. The rebellion needed She Ra and Adora wasn’t about to stop helping out due to a silly little sickness.

…Even if said silly little sickness was currently making her feel like she was going to throw up again despite having no more food left in her stomach.

Then there was a piercing ringing sound as her communicator went off, informing her that there was a meeting she needed to attend in a fifteen minutes while simultaneously making Adora’s head feel like it was splitting in half.

Damn it all.

Adora forced herself up from the floor, gripping the walls like a lifeline until she was upright.

Once finally upright, Adora slowly shuffled across the room, her knees feeling like they were about to collapse under her weight, until she managed to get to her bed.

Thankfully Adora had fallen asleep in her uniform again last night, meaning that she didn’t have to fumble through getting herself changed. But what she did regret was her choice to leave the sword of power on her cabinet on the other side of the room.

But still, it was just crossing her room, she’d done it thousands of times. Being sick didn’t change that.

So Adora pulled herself back up with considerable effort and hobbled over before practically collapsing on the cabinet.

This was no good. If she wasn’t able to get across her room, then how exactly was she supposed to go halfway across the castle? How was she supposed to fight the Horde like this?

Then an idea popped into Adora’s head.

Medicine, she needed medicine. And if she remembered correctly, there should be some in this very cabinet.

But a quick search of her cabinet yielded only a disappointingly small packet of bandages.

Dammit all.

Adora groaned as a second idea popped into her head.

She Ra.

Perhaps becoming She Ra would help?

She saw nothing else for it, so Adora picked up the sword of power and pushed it up above her head with considerable effort. “For the honor of Grayskull!”

Moments later she was She Ra, warrior princess. And her head felt a little better, even if the pain was more dulled than gone. Her nausea and exhaustion were also more dulled down from before.

Well, Adora had no idea how long this was going to last but being She Ra seemed to help with being sick.

As such she decided to get to the meeting as soon as possible and exited her room, making haste to the war room.

When she’d finally arrived, Adora noted that she was the last person to arrive, it was a full house today, Frosta, Perfuma and even Seahawk was here. (He’d been bought along by Mermista.)

“Morning Adora.” Bow greeted her. “What kept you so long?”

“And why are you She Ra?” Mermista asked.

Adora ignored Bow’s question in favour of answering Mermista’s. “I’m always She Ra.”

“Yeah, but usually you’re not eight foot tall when you come to these meetings.” The water princess pointed out.

“I thought it would be a nice change of pace.” Adora lied, receiving several weird looks for this statement.

She ignored them and took her seat.

“Well, now that we’re all here, we can start this meeting.” The queen announced.

Adora nodded but found herself unable to pay attention to what was actually being discussed.

It went a little something like this:

The queen said: “Blab bla bla the Horde.”

A princess would say: “Blab bla bla my territory.”

The Queen would nod and move onto the next princess.

But Adora just couldn’t bring herself to pay attention, even as She Ra her head felt like it was swimming.

“Bla bla bla, new fort.”

“Bla bla bla scouting.”

“What are your thoughts Adora?”

Adora’s head snapped back up and she started to pay attention again. “I’m sorry, what?”

Glimmer frowned. “I asked if you’d be up to help with scouting out the new Horde fort that’s popped up.”

Oh, that’s what they were talking about for the last… (Adora glanced at a clock) 50 minutes. How did fifty full minutes pass by so quickly?

“Sure, that sounds good.” Adora nodded.

“Adora…” Bow said carefully. “Are you alright?”

“Of course I am!” She exclaimed perhaps a touch too loudly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well usually you aren’t this quite.” Perfuma frowned. “Most times you’d interrupt our reports with suggestions and advice.”

“So it’s not just me then?” Sea Hawk asked rhetorically. “Thank goodness, I wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if this was normal as I’m almost never at these meetings.”

Even _Sea Hawk_ had noticed!?

Queen Angella also chipped in. “I will admit, your behaviour today has been most unusual. Is there anything you’d like to tell us?”

And the queen too. Great, just great.

With all eyes on her, Adora did what she did best in this type of situation.

“I am absolutely fine, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and get ready for the mission.” Adora got up and left without making eye contact.

* * *

(G)

“What was that about?” Mermista asked as soon as Adora had left.

“I have no idea.” Glimmer said, as mystified as everyone else.

“And doesn’t she know there’s a good forty minutes left in the meeting?” Frosta pointed out.

Bow shook his head. “There’s no way around it, something is up with Adora.”

“Maybe she’s just tired?” Perfuma suggested.

“No, Adora acts different when she’s tired.” Bow shook his head. “There’s a lot more yawning.”

“And what about the deal of being She Ra for the meeting? She’s _never_ She Ra for the meetings.” Glimmer pointed out something she noticed.

“You know, her behaviour reminds me of a sailor suffering of the Sea flu. A very terrible version of the flu that typically effect sailors.” Sea Hawk chipped in.

Glimmer considered the possibility for a few seconds before dismissing it. “No, we haven’t been anywhere near the sea recently so it can’t be that.”

Mom held up her hand. “Regardless of the cause, we should continue the meeting. Afterwards you may check up on Adora.”

With that the meeting continued on as it would, everyone finished their reports and there was nothing new or that suggested that the Horde had a major offensive in the works which was generally good news.

“Meeting adjourned.” Mom said finally, and Bow in the same mind as her, followed Glimmer out of the room as they made a beeline for Adora’s room, not stopping to chat with the other princesses as usual.

When they finally managed to get to Adora’s room, Glimmer stopped and knocked. “Adora, you in there? Can we come in?”

“Hold on! I’ll be there in a min-” Adora then abruptly cut herself off as she went into what sounded like a coughing fit.

“Adora we’re coming in.” Bow said, much to Adora’s protests.

“No, no don’t-”

Glimmer and Bow kicked a door open each and entered Adora’s room, seeing the person herself, (as herself and not She Ra), standing hunched over in the middle of the room.

And now that she wasn’t She Ra, Adora looked absolutely terrible. Her face looked absolutely exhausted and she was several shades paler than usual.

Both Glimmer and Bow rushed over to their friend’s side.

“Adora, are you okay?”

“Speak Adora, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing I’m _fine_.” Adora said, the hoarsely tone of her voice betraying her. Then as if to prove the point, Adora tried to push herself upright only to fail miserably and would have collapsed to the floor if Bow and Glimmer didn’t catch her.

“Let’s get you to bed.” Bow said gently.

Glimmer’s worry increased as Adora only grunted in acknowledgement. Yeah, she most assuredly wasn’t alright.

“Bow watch Adora, I’m going to get a doctor then tell mom that we won’t be able to go on the scouting mission.” Glimmer told him to which Bow nodded.

Adora opened her mouth to protest but Glimmer teleported to the castle doctor before her friend got so much as a word out.

“Ah, your majesty, what can I do for you?” The castle doctor asked.

“It’s Adora, we need you to see her.” Glimmer explained. “She’s in her room and she’s really sick.”

“I see.” The castle doctor stroked his chin. “What are the symptoms?”

“She can barely stand up, her head hurts really bad, she has a bad fever and I’m fairly certain she’d be throwing up if she could.” Glimmer listed off the symptoms with her fingers, worry clear in her voice.

The castle doctor nodded. “I’ll get my things and then I’ll be right up.”

Glimmer said a quick “Thank You.” Before she teleported away to search for her mom. Three teleports later and Glimmer found her in the Brightmoon library.

“Mom!”

“Glimmer. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’m sorry to say that we can’t go on the scouting mission any longer, Adora’s sick.” Glimmer reported.

“Sick? Is that why she acted so odd at the meeting?” Mom questioned.

“Yes, we’ve got the doctor looking at her now.”

Mom nodded. “Very well, we will dispatch someone else to scout out the fort while you take care of Adora.”

“Thanks mom.” Glimmer said and gave her a hug that her mom returned.

“It’s truly no problem, just _please_ try not to get sick yourself.”

“I’ll try.”

Glimmer teleported back to Adora’s room in time to see the doctor looking over Adora on her bed while Bow looked worried beside them. Glimmer then went beside Bow, shared the news about them no longer going scouting, and waited for a diagnosis.

A few minutes later, the doctor stood up and offered the diagnosis.

“Near enough as I can tell, she’s suffering from a variation of the flu.” He explained. “There isn’t really a cure for it other than bed rest. It should go away after a few days.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Glimmer asked.

“Not really, except making sure she takes her liquids, and I could also briefly prescribe her some painkillers which should help.”

Bow nodded. “Thanks doctor.”

“Just remember to call me if her condition gets worse.” The doctor said before he left, leaving the best friend squad alone to take care of their friend.

* * *

Despite Adora’s initial objections, she would be very much grateful for the help of her friends in getting her back into a more lucid state of consciousness.

And inevitably, the news of her being sick would reach the wider rebellion and princess alliance.

The response was typically just cards and flowers wishing Adora a speedy recovery, but that was the response of the common folk. When the news reached the Princesses involved with the alliance the reaction was different…

Perfuma, Mermista and Frosta all heard the news in their respective kingdoms, and all decided separately to help Adora in recovering from the flu because she had helped them.

And as with everything involving the princess alliance, the plan would not survive the first few seconds of its implementation and implode in spectacular fashion.

* * *

(A)

Her bed was nice and cozy, with much more pillows than usual. Glimmer and Bow had donated their pillows and blankets to the noble goal of keeping Adora comfy.

And in all honesty apart from the feeling constantly nauseous and lacking the ability to stand up, Adora had been surprised how pleasant her experience was. She’d been expecting to be in an isolated room that lacked everything much like it did with the Horde.

But the rebellion surprised her as it always did.

So her time while sick had been pleasant, Bow bought her soup and Glimmer would tell her stories about her and Bow’s youth.

Currently Adora was just relaxing in her room reading a nice novel that Glimmer had loaned her called ‘Love Amongst the Dragons.’

She closed her eyes for a moment to rest them and when she opened them Perfuma was hovering above her.

Wait, What?

Adora’s brain caught up with reality and she lurched back. “Perfuma! Why are you here?”

“Seeing you obviously.” Perfuma said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I heard you were sick and decided to help.”

“I appreciate the thought but-” Adora interrupted herself by breaking into a coughing fit. Once it had subsided she continued. “I have the flu, the only cure is bedrest, I’m not sure how you could help.”

“Ah, but that’s where your wrong.” Perfuma said. “Back in Plumeria we’ve got all sorts of herbs and plants for healing.”

“Then why wouldn’t the doctor recommend some?” Adora asked.

Perfuma waved her hand dismissively. “Probably because he’s never even heard of them. If he had he would have given you some right away.”

Adora was skeptical, but reasoned that while it sounded a little weird, the rebellion as a whole was a pretty weird place. That weirdness had turned out to be a (mostly) good thing so far. So Adora nodded in agreement for Perfuma’s idea.

The plant princess looked ecstatic and pulled half a dozen herbs from her bag.

“Great! I was thinking that we could start with the red one, which I think helps with fever.”

Adora’s confidence in the plan put on some goggles, opened the plane door and went skydiving.

“Oh, and if that doesn’t work then the blue one acts as a pain killer most of the time.”

Her confidence hit a flock of birds and one of them cracked the glasses of her goggles.

“And if all else fails then I’ll use these healing crystals Entrapta gave me before she joined the Horde, although I’m not exactly sure how they work.”

Her confidence’s parachute failed to open and it hit the cold unforgiving ground.

“Perfuma?” She said weekly. “I don’t think-”

Adora was stopped from thinking when her room door flew open and two people entered.

“Greetings friends!”

“Hey.”

Sea Hawk and Mermista respectively entered the room.

“Hey guys.” Perfuma waved. “What brings you guys here?”

“We came to help Adora.” Mermista said in that same dead inside tone she always used.

Sea Hawk nodded enthusiastically. “That’s right, while it might not be the same thing, I can recall many a time where I suffered through the sea flu.” Sea Hawk opened up a sack he’d bought along. “And at the request of Mermista, I’ve bought along several home remedies.”

Adora’s confidence realised that it had survived the fall and had started crawling towards safety.

Sea Hawk then pulled out a bowl of what looked like stew and stirred it a few times. It actually smelled quite delicious.

“This is fish stew, a fairly delicious concoction passed down by my parents to me.” Sea hawk explained.

“It’s not terrible.” Mermista said which was about as close to approval as she got.

Well if Mermista said it wasn’t terrible then it must be pretty good. Adora’s confidence picked itself up and spotted a person that could help it at a distance.

“Sounds great.” Adora coughed. “What’s in it?”

“Eel and puffer fish.” Sea Hawk said cheerfully.

Perfuma objected immediately. “But puffer fish are poisonous!”

Adora’s confidence reached the stranger in the distance who immediately pulled out a gun, gave Adora’s confidence a shovel and told it to start digging.

“I don’t want to be poisoned.” Adora protested weakly.

“And you won’t be.” Perfuma promised. “Well use my herbs instead.”

“I’m like nighty five percent sure that you have no idea how to use those.” Mermista said with crossed arms.

“Of course I do.” Perfuma objected, but a guilty look came across he face. “I asked the healers about them and everything!”

“My stew is not poison!” Sea Hawk objected. “The poison has been diluted to point where it is in fact beneficial.”

Adora wasn’t exactly a doctor, but she was fairly certain that poison didn’t work that way.

It was at this point that Frosta entered the room, carrying a big basket that was almost as big as Frosta herself.

“Hey Adora, I heard you were sick so I bought some fruit and bread for you eat while…” Frosta trailed off as she spotted the others in your room. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Try to help Adora, same as you.” Mermista said.

“Oh, well I bought some bread, fruit and honey for Adora to have while she’s sick.” Frosta explained.

Adora nodded. “Thanks, I appreciate the gesture Frosta.”

Frosta’s face brightened into a massive smile, but then Perfuma interrupted the moment. “Now, if you could all leave the use of herbs is a very delicate operation and I wouldn’t want something to go wrong.”

Mermista snorted. “Oh please, Adora clearly doesn’t want to try your quackery.” That was true, Adora really didn’t want to try the herbs in the hands of someone inexperienced, no matter how helpful that person was trying to be.

“No, clearly Adora wants the stew instead.” Mermista continued while Adora groaned. She most definitely didn’t want to try the poison stew.

“Guys!” Frosta set down the basket and waved her arms. “Look at her, Adora doesn’t want either of those things” Adora lifted her head and looked at Frosta hopefully. “She wants to eat the fruit!”

Adora opened her mouth to speak, but then Frosta reached into the basket and lifted out what looked like an apple made of pure ice.

“Tada!” Frosta held the ‘apple’ up proudly. “One apple, grown in my personal gardens.”

“Is that apple made out of ice?” Adora asked cautiously.

Perfuma went close and inspected the apple, looking at it from several angles and humming until she pulled away with a smile on her face. “It is, I’ve heard of them. It’s a very rare type of apple that typically grows only in particularly cold areas of the world. It has all the regular nutrients of a proper apple but happens to be made of ice.”

Okay, no.

Maybe when she wasn’t sick Adora would have considered trying it, but she was quite sick right now and in no mood to be trying whatever new strange thing the rebellion had come up with today.

But before Adora could open her mouth to protest, Perfuma decided to start a war over fruit.

“But personally, I never liked them. Too sour for my tastes.” Perfuma’s face scowled (A weird look for the normally peaceful princess). “But the red apples from kingdom, now _they_ are great!”

Frosta looked scandalised at the suggestion that the ice apples were anything less than perfect, Mermista looked amused for once and Sea Hawk actually looked thoughtful.

“Hey, my ice apples are perfect!” Frosta protested angrily. “And sour is better than those stupid red apples from your kingdom, they’re _way_ too sweet.”

Now it was Perfuma’s turn to look scandalised. “No way! My apples are prefect! _You_ just have bad taste.”

“You know, I don’t think either are particularly good.” Sea Hawk weighed in. “I’ve always been an oranges man myself.”

But before a proper debate about the particulars of which fruit, apple or otherwise could take place, Mermista cleared her throat, gave everyone a pointed look and said. “Adora.”

The three of them looked embarrassed at temporarily forgetting the reason they were all there in the first place.

“Of course, but how exactly do we decide which one of our cures she should take?” Sea Hawk asked. “As if they all work properly-” (Adora was fairly certain none of them did) “Then that means that only one cure can be used.”

They went into a contemplative silence, but Adora wasn’t foolish enough to hope that they’d just consider leaving Adora to rest.

“What about a vote?” Perfuma suggested.

Adora was seriously about to consider laughing as the stupidity of the suggestion washed over her, and only her.

“That sounds like a great idea.” Frosta said. “Princess votes only of course?”

“Naturally.”

“Then all who vote for my idea, put your hands up.” Perfuma said, putting her hand up in support of her own idea, but she was the only one.

“All in favour of Mermista’s idea?” Mermista put her hand up and so did Sea Hawk until he remembered that he wasn’t a princess and put his hand back down.

“And Frosta’s?” Predictably only Frosta put her hand up.

And it was a three way tie, who would have guessed? She did. Adora knew that the result of vote would be a tie. By She Ra, Adora just wanted them to go away so she could rest.

The three princess then had an argument that Adora couldn’t be bothered to keep track of, but it ended in the general consensus that it should be Adora who got the final vote on which of their quack cures should be used.

Why exactly it took almost half an hour and several pitched arguments before they got round to asking Adora which one of the cures _she_ wanted to use would forever remain a mystery but Adora just attributed it to the rebels being weird again.

“Well, what do you choose then?” Sea Hawk asked.

And despite herself, Adora actually considered the options.

One, Perfuma’s herbs that had dubious healing abilities and she was unsure of how exactly to use them.

Two, Sea Hawk’s stew which had literal poison inside it but apparently Mermista liked it and he claimed that it would help.

Three, Frosta’s frozen ice apples that had no actual reported healing abilities but were incredibly sour.

And in all honestly Adora was honestly ready to tell them all to shove it, too sick and sore to care about her usual manners, but rather thankfully Glimmer and Bow finally returned.

“What are you guys doing here? Adora’s supposed to be resting!”

They explained and Glimmer asked them outside, they all went while Bow stayed behind awkwardly while the shouting started.

Now, while she was sick and couldn’t make out _all_ the words, Adora caught the general gist of it.

A few minutes later and the princesses (and Sea Hawk) returned, all of them looking sheepish, embarrassed, mortified and apologetic respectively. (Guess who felt which).

They all came out with apologies for bothering her while she was sick and told her that bed rest really was the best cure.

But Adora felt a little bad about it, even if she really didn’t want to try their home remedies, she knew that their hearts were in the right place.

“Thanks guys, I appreciate it.” She said. “And I really appreciate the thought behind everything, next time you guys are sick I promise to try and help you as much as you’ve tried to do for me.”

Adora was rewarded with smiles all around, but she still needed to say one last thing.

“One last thing.” Adora said with a smile. “No more homebrew cures please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> I wasn't quite sure how to end this one, but I think it wrapped up well enough.  
> And I've (finally) finished season 2 of She Ra and am now in the middle of season 3, exiting times.  
> Please feel free to comment/PM me about any ideas you have for this series, as it is more one shot-y in nature I'm always open to the ideas of others.
> 
> As always, thanks everyone for reading with extra thanks to those that comment/review, you're all awesome.
> 
> Next time Adora discovers the wonder of horror movies. I'll always try and up date on Sundays, so till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	3. Horror movies

It would not be a controversial statement to say that the rebellion was different from the Horde.

This difference could be seen in many areas, from the food to the command structure.

But Adora wasn’t necessarily sure that this difference was always a good thing.

Her experience with films would prove to be the perfect example.

* * *

(A)

“I know what a movie is.” Adora scoffed at the accusation, seriously the Horde wasn’t _that_ bad.

She honestly wasn’t sure how exactly the conversation had gotten to this point, Adora had just been checking in with her friends after a training session with Light Hope and they suddenly decided to spring a bunch of random questions on her.

Lots of questions about what exactly she knew about movies and what exactly movies in the Horde were like.

“I never said that you didn’t.” Bow held up his hands in protest.

Glimmer nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, we were just wonder what the _quality_ of films were like.”

Deciding to indulge her friends questions, Adora thought back to the few times that movies were shown back in training, they were probably some of her fondest memories of her time in the Horde. Like when she and Catra couldn’t sleep after they watched ‘The terror of the bloody princess’ and ended up staying up all night with each other keeping an eye out for scary princesses.

Or when they watched the comedy ‘The Horde and The Holy Grail’ which had the pair of them laughing for weeks on end.

“I’d say the quality of films were pretty good.” Adora said after some thought.

“Right, but were they _really_ good or were they just propaganda?” Bow asked the hard hitting questions.

Adora had to consider this, it was probable that they were propaganda, for example ‘Saving private Kyle’ would probably be better if they didn’t have a massive speech in the middle of the film about how the Horde was the best thing that ever happened to Etheria in the middle of it.

“Well, they do have some scenes that in retrospect might be propaganda.” Adora admitted. “But some of them can be really good!”

“Right.” Glimmer said skeptically.

“Why are you asking anyway? What’s with the sudden interest?”

Glimmer and Bow grinned in a way they only did when they had something new to show Adora.

“Well we were talking and thought about things you might have missed while you’ve grown up in the Horde.” Glimmer explained.

“And we decided to have a movie night!” Bow exclaimed.

“Movie night?” Adora repeated, knowing that they’d explain it.

“Basically where you, me and Glimmer all settle in someone’s room and we watch a bunch of movies together.” Bow explained.

Adora smiled at the idea. “That sound like a lot of fun.”

“Good, good. We can do it in my room at let’s say… five?” Glimmer asked, receiving a nod from both of them. “Great I’ll bring the snacks!”

“And I’ll bring the movies.” Bow said.

“And _I’ll_ bring the…” Adora trailed off as she wracked her brain about what exactly she could bring to the movie night. Blankets? Pillows? The sword of protection?

“You can just bring yourself.” Bow said gently.

“Alright, at five then?”

“At five.” Glimmer confirmed.

“See you then.”

* * *

(A)

Soon enough five o’clock came around and Adora found herself outside Glimmer’s room. She took a deep breath and entered, seeing that Glimmer’s bed was actually on the floor for once. It had been converted into something more like a sofa rather than a proper bed. A television screen had also been procured from somewhere and had been placed in from of the sofa/bed.

Glimmer and Bow where already waiting for her, both of them with buckets of what was presumably a form of food (a third one was nearby, presumably for her) and looked comfy on the sofa/bed.

“Adora! Glad you could make it, take a seat and grab some popcorn.” Bow gestured to the vacant seat in between him and Glimmer.

With some trepidation, Adora took the designated place and grabbed the remaining bucket, looking at the food inside with curiosity.

“So this is popcorn?” Adora sought conformation.

“Yep, although we didn’t know if you’d prefer sweet or salted popcorn so we got both.” Glimmer said casually. “Give it a try.”

And so Adora did, taking a small handful and shoving it right into her mouth. A few moments later she only had half a bag left.

“Slow down there, save some for the movie.” Bow chuckled.

“So, what do you got for us today Bow?” Glimmer asked.

Bow held up the remote for the tv. “It’s an oldie but a goodie, _Civilian Kane.”_

“ _Daffodil bud_.” Glimmer whisper yelled. “Good choice Bow.”

Bow shushed her as the film started, and Adora wasn’t quite sure what she was watching.

It was all done in black and white, and there were a lot less explosions than in productions by the Horde. It wasn’t like anything by the Horde in terms of tone either, those films either tried to make you laugh or feel patriotic. (There was lots of propaganda in either case). But this film just was different and didn’t really appeal to her tastes.

Throughout it Adora kept (subtly) glancing at Bow and Glimmer to see their reactions, they seemed to be enjoying it which was nice for them.

And eventually, the movie ended as the credits rolled. And her friends looked at her for her opinion.

“Well, what do you think?” Bow asked.

Adora thought for a moment about how to put her thoughts into _tactful_ words. Bow and Glimmer clearly enjoyed the movie and hoped that Adora would as well.

“Well, it’s certainly… _different_ from anything I’ve seen in the Horde.” Adora said as lightly as she could. “It was very…” Boring. “… _Interesting_.”

Bow’s face fell. “You didn’t like it.”

Adora’s hands waved around in denial. “No, no I liked it, really.”

“What was the importance of ‘Daffodil bud’ then?” Glimmer asked.

Oh dear. She wracked her memories but drew a blank so she guessed.

“It was… the name of his newspaper company?” Adora winced as she guessed, the looks she was being given indicating that she guessed wrong.

“His childhood sled, it was the name of his childhood sled.” Bow said, a slight amount of disappointment in his voice.

“Okay, so I might not have really liked it.” Adora admitted. “It just didn’t really appeal to my tastes.”

Bow looked thoughtful. “What if I got something more action packed?”

Adora nodded. “Yeah that sounds great!”

“Then I have just the thing.” Bow felt around his bag for a film and lifted it out triumphantly. “ _The Determinator._ ”

“Woo!” Glimmer yelled before sounding out a theme tune. “Duna dun the dun, Duna dun the dun.”

Glimmer patted Bow on the back. “Nice choice, oh then we can try _Determinator two; justice day_.”

They all went silent as Bow played the film on the tv.

It was a much better experience for Adora, like the films back in the Horde but without the propaganda.

Explosions, action and more than a few awesome chase scenes through Brightmoon meant that Adora was kept more entertained. Even if she didn’t really like the overall message that ‘you couldn’t fight fate’ which she disagreed with on many levels.

The end credits rolled and Adora was pumped.

“Alright, what did you think about this one then?” Bow asked confidently.

“It was awesome!” Adora enthused. “That guy, the determinator? He was so _cool._ And Kyle Rice with Sara Donner? They word so well together.”

“Yeah!” Glimmer high fived Adora. “What’s next then Bow? We should have time for one more.”

Bow looked thoughtful before he pulled out one final movie.

Glimmer made a skeptical noise. “ _Isolation_? Are you sure Bow?”

“What’s wrong with _Isolation_?” Adora asked.

“There’s nothing wrong per say, but it’s a horror film so it’s a tad scary.” Glimmer explained, causing Adora to blink.

“Is that it? I used to watch _The Terror of The Bloody Princess_ all the time.” Adora dismissed their worry’s cockily.

Sure the movie had given her nightmares for weeks afterwards, but she was mostly over it.

“If you say so.” Glimmer said skeptically. “Start the movie Bow.”

And start the movie did, it was something of a slow start. But as it went on and on, Adora found herself becoming more and more tense. There was just something that kept Adora on the edge of her seat, then there was the crashed ship.

It just evoked a feeling of wrong in Adora, a feeling that was made worse by the eggs. It was no exaggeration to say that she let out a small scream when that thing came out of the one of them and attached it to Dane’s face.

But after that they returned to the ship and everything seemed fine. A creepy story that would haunt her dreams for a while about on par with ‘The Terror of The Bloody Princess’.

Then Dane’s chest exploded.

Adora screamed again, but found she couldn’t bring herself to look away. Eyes fixed in morbid fascination at the gore on screen.

From there Adora would barely blink as she watched the Horror unfold, the crew was picked off one by one until only Ripples was left. To say Adora was relieved to have it end would be an understatement.

Then of course it didn’t end and the monster was revealed to have snuck aboard the escape ship, Adora could barely keep herself from just hiding under the blankets. But then the monster was destroyed by the engine and Adora felt relived. The credits finally rolled and her friends turn to ask Adora her thoughts.

“Okay, what did you think of that one?” Glimmer asked eagerly.

Multiple responses came to the forefront of her mind, ranging from it was scary to it was _terrifying_ , but what came out instead was:

“It was great.” Adora said with a largely forced smile, one that Bow and Glimmer would have noticed if they weren’t so tired with it being so late.

“Good.” Bow yawned loudly. “I’d ask more but I really need to get some sleep.”

Glimmer nodded sleepily in agreement. “Yeah, you guys can both say here for the night. It’s really time to hit the hay.”

Adora didn’t protest as they all cuddled into Glimmer’s bed, the closeness of her friends keeping the terror away as she settled into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next day, Adora was fine. No, really. Throughout the day nothing eventful happened, they received a mission to liberate a rebel camp that the Horde had occupied the previous night.

Bog standard really. They left first thing that morning, making good time towards the camp located in the Whispering Woods and _Isolation_ barely registered in Adora’s mind.

But as nightfall approached and they got closer Adora’s mind decided to remember the creature from ‘Isolation’ and it asked a question that ignited proper _fear_ in her mind.

What if the Alien was _real_?

Of course, this naturally would affect the liberation of the camp, but not in the way one would think…

* * *

(C)

“Anything interesting?” Catra called out to the troops looking over the rest of the camp.

All of them reported back a negative, causing Catra to stamp her feet in frustration. They’d been sent in to clear out this particular camp because the scouts had reported that it should some tech the Entrapta could use.

The princess was actually with them and everything, ready to analyse anything they found.

But even after searching all day, they’d found nothing of value, just some trash as it turned to evening. Old junk like movies and books, nothing that was really valuable.

“Hey Catra!”

Catra jumped back at Scorpia’s sudden appearance and gave a pre-emptive sigh of frustration at whatever Scorpia thought of to waste her time with now.

“Yes?” Catra asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

“I’ve found something!” Scorpia’s voice was filled with enthusiasm which allowed Catra to get her hopes up. Well, until Scorpia raised her claws to show several of the rebel movies they’d found earlier.

“Scorpia, no.”

Scorpia pouted. “You didn’t even know what I was going to say.”

“You were going to suggest we watch those movies.” Catra rolled her eyes.

“It’ll be fun!” Scorpia insisted. “Come on, we can take a break while these guys search, we’ll see what the rebels watch for fun, we can just relax with Entrapta for a bit.” Scorpia looked really hopeful. “Please?”

Catra’s resolve crumbled under the puppy dog eyes Scorpia gave. Damn her.

“Fine, one movie.” Catra relented. “ _One_.”

Catra immediately regretted this decision as Scorpia scooped her up into a violent hug that Catra tried unsuccessfully to escape from.

“Come on, let’s go and see Entrapta!”

Catra was then finally dropped and followed Scorpia to the small metal building they’d allocated Entrapta so that she could work in peace and stop bothering Catra.

“Hey, Entrapta want to watch a movie?” Scorpia said by way of greeting as they entered the makeshift lab.

“Sure!” Entrapta replied, not missing a beat as she worked on some piece of machinery. “Which one?”

“No idea, their all rebellion movies so we were hoping that you’d tell us which one was good.” Scorpia explained.

Entrapta hummed as her hair took the movies out of Scorpia’s claws and she looked at the movies with a hum. She then discarded five of them before squealing excitedly at the fifth one.

“This one! This one! This one!”

“Why? What’s it about?” Catra asked, arms crossed but curious at what had gotten Entrapta so excited. (Not that it was hard to achieve.)

“Well, it’s just that it’s the only one I haven’t seen yet and all the other princesses keep telling me how _good_ it is.” Entrapta explained with her usual energy.

“Fine.” Catra said shortly. “We’ll watch this one, _Isolation_ , do we have DVD player?”

“Emily plays DVDs.” Entrapta grinned. “I can’t wait, my first ever horror movie!”

“Horror movie?” Scorpia asked, looking slightly dismayed. “Like _The Terror of The Bloody Princess_?”

Catra chuckled at the memory of that movie. “I like it already.”

The choice of movie decided, they all settled on an old couch that was in the building as Emily dimmed the lights and projected the movie on the wall.

* * *

(A)

The best friend squad overlooked the former rebel camp that was currently being occupied by the Horde from their vantage point on a nearby hill. The camp itself was a section of small buildings with lots of tents in the middle of a clearing in the Whispering Woods.

It looked pretty standard as far as Horde occupied territory went, with all the soldiers looking around the camp presumably to see if the rebellion had left behind anything useful.

But of course it would be less than standard if the alien showed up…

Adora shook her head as if it would make the thoughts go away which they defiantly didn’t. Stupid stubborn thoughts.

“Well looks like nothing special.” Glimmer declared. “Just the standard patrols, a few troops and bots. Easy.”

“But the survivors reported that Catra was in the area.” Bow raised a valid point. “Adora?”

“Well, I think we should just keep it simple, you two draw off the bots and soldiers, I’ll infiltrate the camp and deal with Catra.” Adora laid out the plan to which they both agreed.

“Alright, see you on the other side.” Bow said as he readied an arrow on his bow.

“Stay safe.” Glimmer commanded before she teleported Bow and herself away to presumably deal with the bots and troops.

Unless the alien from the movie attacked them…

No.

Adora refused to entertain that particular possibility. Instead she took a deep breath and got to walking down the hill, trying to focus on dealing with Catra instead.

* * *

(C)

The credits rolled and Catra felt more than a little disturbed. Disturbed and ever so slightly completely terrified.

“That was GREAT!” Entrapta enthused.

Of course Entrapta loved the movie, she’d spent the whole thing talking about the various scientific possibilities the movie had presented which honestly made Catra feel worse about it.

“Is it over?” Scorpia peered over the back of the couch. She’d hidden back there in the first ten minutes and stayed there while the movie played, occasionally looking up, making a scared noise and hiding back down.

“It’s over.” Catra confirmed and Scorpia left the back of the couch.

“Great movie right?” Scorpia laughed nervously.

“Something like that.” Catra replied. “Now come on, let’s get back to work.”

They left the building only to find that something was very much wrong.

Not a single bot nor soldier could be seen for miles and a light fog had descended over the camp, giving it a really creepy feeling. It was also night now which really didn’t help.

“Hello, anybody here?” Catra called out with the only the silence of the night answering.

Scorpia weakly chuckled. “Hey, this kinda reminds me of that scene, you know the one with the eggs?”

Why did she have to bring that up? _Why did she have to bring that up?_

Trying to hide her fear like a pro, Catra raised her voice. “That’s just a movie, nothing like that could happen in real life. Nothing like those eggs or that alien could exist in real life, right Entrapta?” Catra was disturbed by the thoughtful look on Entrapta’s face. “Entrapta, nothing like that could exist… Right?”

“Well…” Entrapta tailed off as she thought about it. “Based off what I saw in the movie, it’s a definite movie. A lot of its design suggests that it was engineered rather than being a naturally occurring species and given what we know about the first ones, then it’s defiantly possible that they made something like that.”

Naturally these were not the words Catra wanted to hear, primarily because they gave fuel to her fears that an alien much like the one in the movie was lurking in the woods.

Scorpia also looked terrified at Entrapta’s words. “Uh, Catra? Normally I wouldn’t suggest this but do you think we could abandon the camp for a little while?”

“Just this once, I agree.” Catra nodded in agreement, her eyes peering into the fog as she did so. Then she spotted movement in the fog.

“Did you see that?” Catra asked her friends, locking her eyes locked onto where she had spotted the movement.

“What? Where!?”

“There!” Catra pointed.

“I don’t see anything.” Entrapta said.

But just as Entrapta said that, something lurched out from the darkness…

“Surrender now!” Adora jump into view from the fog, her sword raised and ready for a fight.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Some of the tension left Catra’s body. “It’s just Adora.”

Adora looked slightly offended at that, but also slightly intrigued. “Where you expecting someone?”

Catra did her best to appear nonchalant. “No. Obviously not, wha- what gave you that idea?”

“All our guys are gone and we think the alien from _Isolation_ is out there.” Scorpia gave out all their information.

Adora looked freaked. “The alien from _Isolation_?!”

“Yeah, we just finished watching the movie and all this foggy mist appeared out of nowhere.” Scorpia explained.

“But that doesn’t prove anything.” Catra pointed out weakly.

Entrapta nodded along. “Yeah statistically it would be very unlikely for the alien to appear just as we finished the movie. But…” Catra was really starting to hate that word. “Unlikely stuff always seems to happen to us despite the odds of it being terrible.”

Great, now even _Entrapta_ looked afraid of whatever might be lurking in the misty dark.

Then a great loud metal noise rang out across the forest and the four of them went back to back with each other, the conflict of rebels against the Horde temporarily forgotten.

“Adora.” Catra said, her voice unnaturally calm to even her own ears. “Just this once, do you think you can do the She Ra thing?”

She saw Adora nod in the corner of her eye.

“For the honour of Grayskull!”

One light show later and She Ra was with them, making Catra feel marginally safer.

But said feelings of safety lasted all of ten seconds when a second loud noise was heard and a distinct silhouette of some four legged creature with a tail could be seen against the light of the moon.

“Run!” One of them (she wasn’t sure which) shouted and everyone ran directly into the building that had served as Entrapta’s lab, which was promptly boarded up, leaving them trapped in it until further notice.

* * *

(A)

The last of the windows were shut and tables moved in front of the door.

Adora could now breath freely. Well, as freely as someone could when trapped in a building hiding from a terrifying monster with three of her biggest enemies.

But sure enough everyone caught their breath and processed what happened.

“Why does this always happen to me?” Catra moaned while Scorpia hugged her for comfort. Entrapta instead muttering rapidly to herself in the corner.

“Glimmer and Bow!” Adora shouted suddenly, remembering that her two friends were out there unaware of the monster lurking in the shadows. She bought out her communicator and tried to call them only for the device to show ‘no signal’.

“Dammit.” Adora cursed as Catra finally wormed her way out of Scorpia’s grip.

“For the record, I blame you for this.” Catra pointed directly at Adora.

“What did I do?”

“It’s a rebel movie we were watching.” Catra growled. “You’re a rebel, obviously it’s your fault.”

Adora thought briefly about arguing the point but decided against it. Instead she elected to take command.

“We need to get out of here.” Adora said bluntly.

Catra rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks captain obvious I had _no idea_.”

“And I think I have an idea.” Adora continued on, ignoring Catra’s sarcasm. “It’s a fairly simple plan, we charge out, me and Scorpia will draw its initial attention while Catra sneaks behind it to surprise it from behind, Entrapta can provide support.”

“Hey!” Catra protested. “What makes you think that you can take charge? If anyone should be it would be me. The Horde is doing better than ever under my watch.”

Adora’s eyes narrowed. Bow and Glimmer could be in danger, she didn’t have time to have this conversation with Catra for the tenth time this week. “Fine.”

“Fine?”

“You be in charge.” Adora gave the sorta grin that got under peoples skin. “I’m assuming that have a better plan?”

“Of course I do!” Catra growled but didn’t follow up on it, prompting stares all around.

“And that plan is?” Adora smirked.

Catra mumbled something.

Adora’s smirk grew wider. “Speak up please, we can’t hear you.”

“You and Scorpia draw its initial attention while I sneak behind it to surprise it, Entrapta can provide support.” Catra spat out looking like she’d bitten into a lemon. “And wipe that stupid smirk off your face.”

Adora had no attention of doing such a thing, at least that was until Scorpia spoke up.

“Great, so should we go now or…?” She trailed off nervously.

“Sooner is better than later I suppose.” Adora replied uneasily.

Entrapta raised a hand, well a hand and some hair. “Oh, please don’t destroy it too badly. Think of what we could learn from its corpse.”

Adora made the mental note to incinerate the corpse at the first available opportunity.

They then slowly moved the barricade away and prepared to charge.

“On three.”

“After or on?”

“On.”

“One.” Adora tensed as She Ra’s muscles prepared for movement.

“Two.” Scorpia’s tail swished nervously behind them and so did Catra’s.

“Three!”

They all charged out, screaming wildly as they searched for the target onto which they could focus their attacks on. But no such target appeared, making them all look like idiots as their limbs flailed wildly. The misty fog that had engulfed the night was now gone, making the atmosphere a lot less threatening.

Then a loud clunking noise was heard, and they all turned to see a cat (a regular one) looking at them rather judgementally.

“Is that it?” Adora asked the others awkwardly as she lowered the sword and reverted back to her regular self.

“I guess so.” Catra replied.

Scorpia chuckled a little. “I guess there was no monster after all, it was just a bunch of coincidences.”

Adora’s communicator rang and she answered it to reveal Bow’s face.

“Hey Adora, we’ve wrapped up here and are on our way. The bots are destroyed and the troops retreating.” Bow reported. “How did things go with Catra?”

“Ugghhh.” Adora glanced at Catra as the feeling of embarrassment swelled up inside her. “We fought, they retreated back to the Fright Zone, I’ll wait for you here.”

Adora closed the communicator and turned to face the super pal trio. “This never happened. We fought for a bit before you guys went away.”

Catra considered this for a few moments before nodding, the mutual embarrassment bringing them to a rare agreement. “Agreed. Come on lets get out of here.”

Catra departed with Entrapta and Scorpia, leaving Adora to wait for her friends and she decided to take measures to ensure that nothing like this would never happen again.

Measures Bow would disapprove of as Adora threw his horror movie collection out the window the following week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.  
> I had problems with trying to end this particular story, but I think it was a decent enough ending.
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading, with extra thanks for those that comment/review, your all awesome. 
> 
> Next time Glimmer's birthday is fast approaching and Adora asks everyone for gift ideas and I do mean everyone. Till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	4. Glimmer's Birthday (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The entire chapter is in Adora's pov.

Birthdays had never been a big deal in the Horde.

Sure, you were a year older and Adora was always given pancakes by Shadow Weaver, but that was the extent of it.

She assumed it was the same for the rebellion, you were only a year older after all. Not really much cause for celebration.

Those expectations were blown out of the water by Queen Angella's birthday celebrations.

Where Thaymor was a party, this was a party. The Queen was given lots of gifts by friends and family and everyone feasted. By the end of it Adora felt sick for the sheer amount of food eaten.

Later Bow told her that this wasn't the usual standard for parties, but because she was Queen she had a bigger celebration. He also told her that the next big birthday coming up would be Glimmer's and that it was customary for people to give gifts.

So Adora prepared a gift for her friend one to give her on what would turn out to be a very memorable day…

* * *

05:12 AM

Adora groaned as her alarm went off, tearing her from her much beloved sleep.

It was early, even by her standards, the sun wouldn't be up for another two hours and barely anyone was awake.

Adora rolled out of bed and got dressed at quickly as possible. There was lots to do today, no real time to waste.

Now fully dressed, Adora check on her gift to make sure it was still wrapped up. And it was, granted the ration of wrapping paper to tape was 40:60 but Adora couldn't help but be slightly proud of it.

The idea for her present had come 'right from the heart' as Bow would put it. Even better, Bow assured her that Glimmer would love it.

Now satisfied that it was secure, Adora grinned and set off for her first destination.

The kitchens.

* * *

05:34 AM

It was with a casual whistle that Adora entered the kitchens, only to be simultaneously glared at by no less than twenty chefs.

They never did forgive her for that first incident in the kitchens.

"Hey, Adora here." She waved sheepishly.

"We can tell." The head chef, a grumpy old woman named Gertrude said rudely. "What do you want?"

"I'm here to prepare a morning breakfast for Glimmer." Adora said with a smile on her face. "I've got a note from Bow and everything."

Bow himself had wanted to help make the breakfast but instead he had been needed to help all the princesses get to Brightmoon safely and help fight off any Horde ambushes.

If all went well then he'd be arriving around ten. In the meanwhile he'd left detailed instructions about what Glimmer loved for breakfast.

Eggs, bacon and a stack of pancakes covered in chocolate sauce. It sounded simple enough and his instructions were fairly clear excepting one or two dozen terms.

"Fine." Gertrude's eyes narrowed. "You can have that corner over there. Try not to interfere with us as we prepare for the feast."

Adora didn't say anything but went to the indicated corner and put on a hair net and apron like Glimmer and Bow had taught her. Then in record time she got all the ingredients the Bow had listed.

Adora clapped her hands together with a triumphant look on her face. This would be easy.

"Would you mind if I joined you?"

Adora turned sharply to face the Queen and saluted out of habit. "Your majesty!"

"At ease." The Queen dismissed her. "I've come here to help you make Glimmer's breakfast."

Well Angella certainly looked the part, with a hair net of her own and an apron that had 'hail to the chef' written onto it. But still, Adora had a few concerns…

"I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but… uh… I don't think I've ever seen you in the kitchen before." Adora said awkwardly.

Angella looked amused. "Don't worry, it's been quite a while but I can still cook. I'm not the type of Queen that has everything done for her."

"What about the celebrations?"

"Casta is organising them as we speak." Angella said, looking annoyed at the thought. "It's honestly quite grating. But still, it's my daughters birthday so I thought that I might join you in your efforts."

Adora nodded, extra help would be welcome and it's not like she'd say no to the Queen of all people.

"Great, well lets get started then, I'll handle the eggs while you make the bacon. Then we can tackle the pancakes together." Adora said to which the Queen nodded.

"Sounds easy enough. The two of us should be able to 'knock this out' as they say." Angella smiled confidently.

It was a confidence that Adora shared. They were the immortal Queen of Brightmoon and legendary princess She Ra respectively. They would be able to handle some measly cooking easily.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

06:01 AM

Everything.

Absolutely everything could go wrong.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Adora shouted frantically at the Queen as Angella's frying pan went ablaze for the sixth time in as many minutes.

"Don't worry, it's handled." Angella said calmly as she bashed the frying pan against the counter top rapidly. But rather than making the flames go away as the Queen no doubt intended, the flames instead somehow intensified. This caused the Queen to frown. "This doesn't seem to be working."

Adora would have lent a hand, but she was too busy trying to mix the pancake batter and failing miserably. It just wouldn't get smooth.

The Queen has more of a liability than a help, her 'vast experience' very much out of date. This meant that Adora had to correct most of the Queens actions, such as stopping her from turning the oven to ridiculous temperatures. Or having to show her where all the cutlery was. Or how to actually turn on the grill top.

Adora's own attempts at making eggs didn't go much better mind you.

She tried her best to 'scramble' them only to end up with what qualified as a sludge rather than actual food.

In her defence, Bow's instructions could have been clearer.

After that failure she'd ended up just moving onto the pancakes, with luck they'd taste just like the ones Shadow Weaver used to make for Adora's own birthday.

The only problem was that the batter refused to become 'smooth' instead it was actually getting harder to stir. Where exactly did she go wrong? Sure she may have improvised with one or two of the steps due to lacking knowledge of what they meant, but still.

They were indeed running out of time, as of the minute they only had forty minutes before Glimmer was to be woken up in keeping with the schedule for the day.

So Adora just pored the thick batter onto the already sizzling frying pan. It didn't immediately explode, passing the first test. Adora then stole a glance to see how well the Queen was doing, seeing that she'd managed to put the fire out which was a good sign.

Adora flipped the batter over awkwardly, succeeding in spilling half of it all over the counter. Still, the ones that remained inside the frying pan were a slightly darker shade of brown.

This process repeated until Adora was left with a counter covered in batter and the world's smallest pancake.

Adora took the pathetic pancake and put it onto a plate with her sludge of eggs. This was quickly joined by Queen Angella's burnt black bacon.

They glanced sideways at each other and decided that this wasn't going to work.

Fortunately Gertrude cleared her throat to get their attention and wordlessly put a tray of actual eatable food in front of them before returning to making the feast.

Angella and Adora looked at each other wordlessly and both decided to use the chef's food.

* * *

06:59 AM

With a minute to spare, Adora and the Queen arrived at Glimmer's room with the proper food so that the princess could have her annual breakfast in bed.

"Remember to be absolutely quite." Angella whispered.

"Don't worry, I'm _great_ at stealth." Adora whispered back assuring.

With that they entered Glimmer's room, the princesses own snores echoed around the room so loudly that Adora wasn't worried about waking her up.

Quietly they went up the pads that led up to Glimmer's bed. They got in position and Adora raised three things and put them down in order.

Three, two, one.

"Happy birthday!" Adora and Angella shouted.

Unfortunately while it did indeed wake Glimmer up, her first reaction was to scream and fire aggressive sparkles randomly, one of which hit Adora square in the chest, sending her flying off the bed and onto the floor.

Ow.

"Adora!" Glimmer and Angella looked down at her.

"I'm alright!" Adora called back up. "Happy birthday by the way!"

Adora began climbing back up, while Angella cleared her throat. "Anyway, Adora and I have made you some breakfast."

"Thank you! It's all my favourites!" Glimmer paused for a moment before looking back down at Adora. "And uh, thanks to you to Adora. And sorry for knocking you off the bed."

"Don't worry about it." Adora said as she finally got up to the bed. "It's your birthday after all, you can knock as many people off beds as you want."

Glimmer nodded but didn't speak as she gorged on the food. Once she finished however Glimmer asked, "So what's the plan for today?"

"Well, around ten Bow will be arriving with the other princesses in tow so that we can begin the main festivities." The Queen explained. "Before that however you are free to do as you please, it's your birthday after all."

"Great!" Glimmer said enthusiastically.

"What do you wanna do then Glimm?" Adora asked.

Glimmer thought for a moment before turning to face the Queen. "I think I'd like to do the same thing we do every year."

"Of course." Angella smiled. "Adora, while we go and do this would you mind checking in with Casta and making sure that the preparations are going well?"

"Of course, and If I may ask, what are you doing?" Adora asked.

"Visiting my dad's memorial." Glimmer said sadly." I like to visit it on my birthday and talk to him about how things are going."

Oh.

"Well, I hope that you- uh, I mean that you uh…" Adora trailed off awkwardly, unsure of what the proper response was. "Happy birthday."

Feeling awkward, Adora fell back on her go to response in these types of situations.

"Bye." She said and left the room as quickly as possible.

Time to see what Castaspella had planned for the celebrations.

* * *

08:34 AM

Adora wasn't quite sure of what she'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this.

It was certainly… _festive_ in its atmosphere. Lots of pinks and green which clashed horribly together was all over various flowers, flags, banners and table cloths.

Staff ran around busily, arranging decorations and setting up food. Castaspella stood at the centre directing the whole operation with enough control and efficiency to put the Horde itself to shame.

"No, put those over there. The red one, the _red_ one. No, Glimmer hates fish, I think I know my own niece better than you. Hmmm, get some more chairs from storage, what do you mean we're out? Then make some more. Oh! Hello Adora."

"Hi." Adora waved back awkwardly. "The Queen sent me here to check on how preparations are going."

"As you can see they are going well." Castaspella said confidently. "Everything should be ready when the guests arrive in an hour."

"That's great, anything I can do to help?"

Castaspella smiled. "As a matter of fact, there is. I would like your opinion on something."

Just give an opinion? She could do that.

"Sure thing." Adora said easily. "On what?"

"My gift to Glimmer. It's just this way." Adora followed Casta to an area just off the main one which was basically a small garden. But the second they entered it, Adora knew exactly what Casta's gift was.

A poem that Shadow Weaver had once read out to Adora came to mind.

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair'

The gift was statue of Glimmer herself etched in pure gold. It was clearly done with loving detail, very much the splitting image of Glimmer herself. But as with most things involving Castaspella, while well-intentioned the execution was somewhat lacking.

For one, rather than have the statue sport Glimmer's regular attire, it instead sported what was undoubtedly a sweater of Casta's own designs.

For second was the _hair_.

"Well what do you think?" Castaspella asked. "I wanted it to be something special of her eighteenth, something that says I love you."

Well, it certainly said _something_. Even if what it said was above Adora's understanding.

"Its… _great_. Glimmer will _love_ it." Adora lied through her teeth.

Fortunately for as bad a liar Adora was, Casta didn't notice due to how busy her mind was at that moment.

"That's good, to tell you the truth I was unsure that she'd like it." Castaspella explained. "But if one of her best friends say so, then I know it'll go great."

"Alright, well I'm going to help the staff with setting up stuff." Adora excused herself.

"Of course, and please do try to have fun, it is a day of celebration after all."

* * *

10:12 AM

Adora stood prim and proper as the princesses arrived into the courtyard set aside for the celebrations.

Preparations had went smoothly enough, sure there had been a minor issue with the punch but other than that everything went as well as it could.

Now it was just a matter of getting her fellow princesses and others into position for Glimmer's arrival.

"Hey guys!" Adora waved them over as they entered, all of them looking around with various reactions to the setting.

"Hey Adora, how're you doing?" Bow greeted her as he walked over.

Adora thought about it for a moment. "Good, I'm good. All the preparations are in place, we're just waiting on Glimmer."

"Great, where do we put these?" Mermista held up a hastily wrapped gift in light blue wrapping paper. Everyone else were also carrying presents of their own, some smaller and some larger.

"On that table there." Adora pointed out the appropriate table. "Did you have any trouble on the way over?"

"Well, we thought that we saw an ice monster when we left my kingdom." Frosta said. "But it was just a snowman."

"Cool." Adora said. "Well Glimmer will be here soon so lets all get into position."

But before this could go much further, a lone chef emerged from the main castle into the courtyard and made a beeline for Adora.

"Excuse me Ma'am, but are you Adora?" The chef, clearly an apprentice asked nervously.

"I didn't do it." Was her automatic response.

"I was sent to find you, there's been an… _incident_ in the kitchen." The apprentice said. "It involves you flying horse."

…

…

…Fuck.

* * *

10:56 AM

"Alright, tell me what happened from the start." Adora requested. "And _no_ interruptions this time."

Before her was an interesting sight to say the least, in one corner was the head chef Gertrude. Covered head to toe in flour and glaring heatedly at the person opposite her.

And in the other corner, Swift Wind looked indignant at being accused at any wrong doing. But this was slightly ruined by the piece of cake hanging conspicuously from his horn.

But the coup de grâce was the ruined cake in the middle of the room, the very same cake that was supposed to be for Glimmer's birthday.

"Gertrude, you go first." Adora said.

"Very well, I was busy preparing the feast for the celebration of the princesses birthday when _he_." Gertrude jerked her thumb harshly at Swift Wind. "Entered the room and started harassing my staff with inane and nonsensical suggestions. I politely suggested that he leave to which he took offense, going on a rampage around the kitchen, destroying the princesses cake and covering me in flour."

"Thank you." Adora said, ignoring a very loud noise of disagreement from Swift Wind. "Now, Swift Wind please tell me your version of events."

"Well, I was in the stables relaxing when I realised the date." He recounted. "Obviously being the helpful person I am, I decided to help out with the food in the kitchens."

"Despite lacking any appendages that might help with such a task." Gertrude muttered just loud enough for them both to hear it, but a warning look from Adora told Swift Wind to ignore it.

"When I arrived I immediately gave several helpful tips to the cooks, charming them effortlessly. Obviously jealous, _she_." Swift Wind jerked his head toward Gertrude. "Quite rudely she told me to 'get lost' and not willing to stop helping I respectfully disagreed. She then resorted to violence and I defended myself, resulting in the unfortunate destruction of the cake."

Adora just groaned and messaged her head. "And which one of you decided to get me?"

"We both did." They said simultaneously.

Of course they did.

Instead of despairing about the situation like she really wanted to, Adora just sighed and looked for a resolution.

"Is the backup cake still alright?"

Gertrude nodded. "Of course."

"Good, good. Get that out as soon as you can." Adora ordered, an idea then popped into her head. "Swift Wind, get that cake off your horn and follow me, I've got a job for you if you still want to help."

"Of course I do." Swift Wind said. "What do you have in mind?"

* * *

12:43 PM

Adora was more than a little out of breath as she finally got back to the party.

Explaining her idea to Swift Wind, the Queen and Castaspella then convincing them to go along with it had been harder than she'd initially thought. Still they were now all in agreement with it and Adora felt confident that it would go off without a hitch.

"Adora!" Sea Hawk waved her over to a table where he, Perfuma and Frosta were all making conversation.

The party was in full swing now, with visiting dignitaries and civilians in the party mingling and eating party food.

"Hey guys, how's the party going?" Adora asked when she reached the table and took a seat.

"It's going great!" Perfuma said cheerfully. "Sea Hawk was just telling us-"

"I was just telling them about the time I single handily defeated the kraken of the southern seas." Sea Hawk interrupted Perfuma dramatically.

"Well please continue then." Adora urged. Odds are only about a quarter of the story would be true, but Sea Hawk was a fairly gifted story teller with an almost unmatched flair for the dramatic.

"Well, the beast had me cornered with my back to the wall and nothing was working." He told them. "Any attempts to stab and slash with my sword were ineffective. However, my initial assault on the best had revealed a key weakness that I could take advantage of. So I set off enacting my ingenious plan, can you guess what it was?"

"You set the ship on fire."

"You set the ship on fire."

"You set the ship on fire."

Sea Hawk blinked. "How did you know?"

"That's you're plan for _everything_." Frosta said.

"It's a little predictable." Perfuma said apologetically.

Undeterred that the conclusion of his story was ruined, Sea Hawk pushed on. "Anyway, with the plan in mind I doused the Dragon's Daughter II in gasoline and put it on a collision course with the monster. At the last possible moment I lit the fire and jumped out, plunging into the icy depths and jumped up just in time to see the collision."

Sea hawk jumped onto the table and waved his arms around dramatically. "The kraken's death was a sight to behold as my flaming ship pierced it's heart, sending the beast to it's demise in legendary fashion."

He received a polite applause from them for his efforts as he sat down.

"Great story Sea Hawk." Adora said politely.

"Where were you anyway Adora?" Perfuma asked. "We were all looking for you earlier."

"Settling a despite involving Swift Wind." Adora told them. "It's sorted now and I've gotta ask, where's Glimmer?"

"I think she was discussing something with Mermista over there." Frosta pointed helpfully.

"Thanks, I'll be back in a few."

Adora went in the direction indicated, fortunately Frosta's info was correct and she came across Glimmer and Mermista chatting at a different table.

"-But they always butcher their adaptation of 'The Boy in the Iceberg' which sucks because the tv show it's based on is _so good_." Mermista told Glimmer who nodded in agreement.

"I know!" Glimmer agreed enthusiastically before noticing Adora. "Hi Adora, please come join us we were just talking about plays."

But as Adora took a seat, a lone guard came rushing through the crowd to get to Adora.

"She Ra! We need your help, there's a situation!"

Adora very nearly slammed her head into the table. Another situation, great.

Hopefully it wouldn't be as bad as the last one.

* * *

13:12 PM

In a way Adora had got her wish. The situation wasn't as bad as it was with Swift Wind and Gertrude.

It was _so_ much worse.

Scorpia, Entrapta, Rogelio and Kyle were all standing at the entrance to the courtyard, each with a present in their hands looking very awkward.

They were currently surrounded by no less than fifty Brightmoon guards, Queen Angella, Glimmer and Adora herself in She Ra form.

"Why are you here?" The Queen asked icily.

"This is kinda awkward, but you see we were kinda sorta… invited." Scorpia finished quietly.

"What." Glimmer said.

"We were invited, got these really nice invitations in the Fright Zone." Entrapta said excitedly, holding up one of the invitations with her hair as she did so. "And well, I've never really been to a real birthday party before, so I wanted to see it for myself. Then it said that I could bring three guests, obviously Scorpia and Catra were my first options."

Adora looked around but couldn't find any evidence of her former best friend.

"But Catra didn't want to go, she just laughed in fact and walked away so I was left with two guests. Then these two-" Entrapta gestured to Rogelio and Kyle, who growled and looked like they were about to faint respectively. "Happened to walk by so Scorpia ordered them to come with us."

Glimmer snorted. "Do you really expect us to believe that? Who the hell would invite _you_ to _my_ birthday?"

"Ah, our last guest is here!" Castaspella walked onto the scene.

"Did you invite Entrapta here?" Adora asked, her tone almost despairing.

"Of course I did." Casta noticed the amount of guard surrounding her guests. "Although from your reaction, I'm guessing that this wasn't the right move."

"Entrapta is part of the Horde and so are her guests." Glimmer explained exhaustedly. "What gave you the idea to invite them?"

"Well, the other day you left your communicator open and alone so I took a look at you contacts list to see if there was anyone that was missing from the guest list. Entrapta's name was the only one missing so I assumed I missed her by accident." Castaspella explained.

"What now?" Scorpia asked. "Can we attend the party or are you going to take us prisoner?"

Adora, Angella, Castaspella and Glimmer all grouped up to discuss this in whispers.

"We can't trust them, we should get them in a cell as soon as possible." Adora put forward her viewpoint.

"But that's rude, I invited them, they're guests." Castaspella argued. "You don't put guests in cells."

"Well, it's Glimmer's birthday. I think that she should decide." Angella said and three head snapped towards Glimmer who looked deep in thought.

After a few minutes, the Princess of Brightmoon made her decision.

"They can stay." Glimmer declared much to Adora's despair. "But the second they make any trouble, they are _out_."

"Alright, you can stay for the party and be allowed to leave after." Adora announced to them after depowering from She Ra. "But if you make any trouble at all, you'll be in a cell faster than Sea Hawk can say 'adventure' got it?"

She was met with four affirmative responses and a very, _very_ bad feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Not much to say except that this was originally supposed to be posted on the 2nd of December which is the cannon date of Glimmer's birthday, but still better late than never. And originally the whole day would have been one chapter, but that quickly grew to be too big so a part two will be coming soon.
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading, with extra thanks to those that comment/review and I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


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